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Transit of Venus: Information

Many people are excitedly planning to watch
the planet Venus move across the face of the Sun as viewed from Earth on
Tuesday and Wednesday (June 5 & 6, 2012). It is one of the rarest astronomical events to occur when Venus transits
between the Sun and Earth, something that will not happen again until 2117.

The rare celestial event will begin around 6
p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) and end at roughly 12:50 a.m. EDT (0450 GMT) Wednesday. The
exact timing could differ by a few minutes from location to location around the
globe.

The trek lasting nearly six hours and forty
minutes has been observed six times in recorded history, and according to
scientific calculations, it would happen again only after 105 years. People in the
United States and Canada can observe the transit when Venus first touches the
outer edge of the Sun. Astronomers call this first step in the passage, Contact
1, where you may see a dark teardrop form, called ‘black-drop effect’.

Contact 1 would start at about 6:03 p.m. EDT
(2203 GMT), i.e. starting from East of the US and Canada. And in the Western US
and Canada, Contact 1 would occur at approx. 3:06 p.m. PDT.

As
part of Contact 2, Venus is going to reach onto the Sun's upper left edge as
visible from Earth. Then Venus will cut across the Sun slanting from the upper
left to the lower right.

Contact
3 will occur when the leading edge of Venus touches the boundary of the Sun, creating
another ‘black-drop effect’. The once-in-a-lifetime occurrence will then end with
Contact 4, when Venus finally moves away from the Sun.

In the days of infinite apps, VenusTransit, an app available on Android
and iOS has been created just for this event. Created by Steven van Roode, it comes with a built-in timer to
calculate the time Venus takes to complete the trek. It also simulates the
process to tell users when the transition will begin and end based on their GPS
coordinates.The app can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/M4s3Vg.

Once Venus has
made its trek, all of the data from the users will be sent to central servers to be
compiled and later displayed as an interactive map on Astronomers
Without Borders Web site: http://tov2012.esri.com

The
space buffs including scientists and amateurs, and photographers are gearing up
for the big show. Venus would appear as a tiny black spot with a diameter of just
1/32 that of the sun. Notwithstanding the size, Venus’ journey should be visible
with the unaided eye. However, it is important to take precautions to view the spectacle
- don’t stare directly at the sun without eclipse-glasses, a properly filtered
telescope or a strong welding visor.

The
rarity of the moment has sparked a curiosity among the public, and so the
entire phenomenon is going to be available live on the Web.

Exploratorium: The San Francisco science
center's seasoned webcast team will be webcasting from Mauna Loa, Hawaii,
starting at 6 p.m. ET.

Univ.
of North Dakota SEMS (in Alaska): UND's Tim Young says the road
show and the chat will start cooking from Alaska at 5:45 p.m. ET. "It is
one of two locations in the U.S. that will see the whole transit," he told
me via email. "The other is Hawaii, and other groups are webcasting from
there."

Slooh Space Camera:Slooh starts
its rock-solid webcast at 5:30 p.m. ET, featuring a dozen or more video feeds
from Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico and
other locales.

Coca-Cola Space
Science Center: Columbus State University's science center in
Georgia is offering pictures from the home base in Columbus, Ga., as well as
from Utah, Mongolia and Australia. The webcast gets started at 5:30 p.m. ET.